Other Worlds: V 2.0

[initiates]

Date & Time: May 21st, beginning at 0900.
Location: The Initiative Hold and all throughout Elmer's world
Characters: Anyone participating in the fighting, anyone staying behind.
Summary: Elmer's world is fought for and lost.
Warnings: Violence, death.

They reopen the portal at 0900, May 21st. The first scientist who stepped through was killed within thirty seconds; the rest who followed made it back through to Exsilium, albeit not unscathed. The portal was shut again by a panicked operator, although a second operator knew to keep the coordinates locked.

Within ten minutes, the alert had been sent out. There's no time to wait for the Transports to gather en masse; as soon as they have a sizable enough force to stand a chance at fighting through and clearing their gateway's location, the door is opened again.

Immediately inside the door is a desolate, grim scene. What had previously been the coast of Japan is now scorched earth, blasted sand, and little else. As the first point of contact for this world, it has undoubtedly suffered the worst. Here, the UE didn't stop at governments, financial centers, and capitols — the UE destroyed everything in sight. There are enough UE soldiers remaining in the broken country to give the Transports a difficult battle, although by now the bulk of their forces have moved on.

The Initiative will soon realize the necessity of opening more gateways, just as the UE had done. Transports will be deployed to London, Berlin, Paris, DC Washington, Moscow, Beijing, New York City, Hong Kong, Madrid. Through each of these windows, the destruction is staggering. Buildings are more husks than structures, everything that can burn is alight, and the death toll is off the charts. Blackened bodies seem to line every street, while pieces litter the ground among the rubble. There's no doubt that the UE has no need of the people of this world. They're after resources only, and anything and anyone already here is to be removed.

You can find UE soldiers everywhere. They move in coordinated squadrons of 20, and each of them carries a small arsenal. Even without their incredibly advanced and destructive weaponry, they're fearfully formidable. Each soldier, while still only human, is a genetically perfect clone, further enhanced by technological implants. They're all highly trained in physical combat. Even if you can disarm one of them, don't count on close-range attacks being any easier to handle. They've brought along cannons, small flying craft, and lightweight tanks. Each of these is the top of the line in terms of technology, geared toward destroying as much as it can, as quickly as it can. The United Earth is here to destroy, and they won't stop to wonder why their targets go from being civilians and scrambling, off-guard, comparatively primitive militaries, to trained and powered Transports.

For anyone staying at home, they'll find that any Initiative presence has withdrawn fully to the Hold. All Initiative employees are needed, and most of them in the med bays. The majority of the Initiative focus is on recalling and resurrecting fallen Transports, but attention is still needed for the living-but-wounded. Any Transports who stay in Exsilium and offer their help will have it immediately accepted; they'll be put to work in the medical wings, runnings supplies, or simply set at a machine and told to keep an eye on the numbers: Transport vitals, UE movements, and maps upon maps of changing statistics and colors.

At 1500, the Initiative will recall all Transport soldiers back to Exsilium and seal shut the gateway. The UE numbers are too great, their soldiers too powerful, and Elmer's world is lost.

Comments

[gevurah]

[ The explosion sends Kate and the other UE soldiers in the room reeling and a cloud of smoke slips into the room. She coughs and heads toward the window, the others one having shattered instantly upon impact.

She quickly turns on infrared in her mask, but she's half expecting Coby to be in pieces all over the place. ]

Kid?!

[chore_boy]

[He briefly blacked out. Unlike the cannon-balls he was more than capable of repelling, these missiles exploded with tons of pounds of pressure. Coby felt the heat of it strike him complete with shrapnel and a vast amount of outward air pressure. Luckily, he had one veritable defense. His arms crossed in front of himself--as Coby managed to cover his more important vitals.

He woke up, standing in the middle of the street in the middle of a burning crater. His arms were tinted black, though not at all from heat or any burns. His 'will' coated him and protected him from the worst of the blast.]

Tcch. Lucky, but... [He turned, his left hand poised to grip his chest. Spots of blood carried themselves up to his shirt and made for a little pattern of red specks, but he didn't seem to notice. Coby thought to cover for Kate and keep those air crafts from risking the safety of anyone else.]

Ma'am! Can you use that hook to carry yourself down to the ground!? I can't intercept every one of their attacks!

[gevurah]

[ She has to duck behind the wall as shrapnel embeds itself against the window sill and some of it hits the UE soldiers who are still disoriented. As one lunges at her, her leg stretches out to kick him hard in the jaw and send him bowling over into his comrades.

In the meantime, she takes the opportunity to get out the window and onto the ledge. Desperately she scans for Coby's heat signature, making it out with her visor. ]

You'll kill yourself. You are not dying on my watch. [ She jumps off the edge, expanding her cape to help glide her safely to the crater. ]

[chore_boy]

[Coby, surprised, wasn't sure why she just jumped. He gawked at Kate a moment until she began to glide and then land much more softly, surprised just the same as she had been, though he decided to pull his jaw right back where it belonged after an extended period of time.]

This is a war! We're both risking ourselves and we can still fight! However, I need to worry you just a little bit more!

[Coby shut his eyes tight, lowering the both of his arms as if he were surrendering. The other two aircraft circled, ready to fire upon the two in a second volley. In reality, Coby was on his biggest guard. He forced every bit of his concentration into his will, allowing himself to feel everything around him all at once.]

I'm going to take them out, both at once.

[gevurah]

[ She knows.

But this is beyond anything she's ever thought she was prepared for. This hits her harder than the first time she left Gotham, thinking she had known war, suffering, agony. She had some sense knocked into her in a boxing ring in Serbia.

She's not going to have it knocked again out here. She's not going to die. She's going to survive and Coby will, too. ]

Victory doesn't mean just saving a life -- it means going back alive, too! [ Without realizing it, she's quoting her father. It'll occur to her later and make her angry. ]

[chore_boy]

[Coby nodded. He walked through the Whitebeard War, meeting monsters. People who could rip the world apart on whim. Almost every big name in Whitebeard's territory walked into a small island and tore it apart like ribbons. It was a miracle that, with the man who could destroy the world, there was still a Marineford to come back to. After seeing that sort of swath of destruction, he was ready for one like this.

What terrified him was that so few people knew that kind of destruction among the transports. It could only mean that his current enemies were just as terrifying as those men and women who called themselves pirates.

For a moment, Coby swayed back and forth. In the next instant, a missile was fired from above and Coby turned himself to the side in silence, extending one hand up.]

You're right. [His eyes were shut, but moments before the shell could strike them, a bright light burst from Coby's palm and blew the missile aside, sending it careening into one of the aircrafts. It was a raw projection of his will. Both exploded, sending its remains straight into a building aside from them. Opening his eyes, Coby looked back to Kate.]

I'm not going to let them continue to be bullies!

[gevurah]

[ She was ready to bolt away and take him with her, but the missile came and then Coby stopped it.

And then her burning curiosity rose again: what the hell is he? ]

We can't do this alone. [ She steps toward him, reaching a hand for his shoulder. A door bursts from behind them and the soldiers pour out like ants. Kate sticks close to Coby and nudges him. ] We have to regroup.

[ Soldiers worked best as a unit. ]

[chore_boy]

Exactly. So-- [Coby's eyes suddenly opened and he raised the both of his hands, clenching his fingers together over his head. It looked almost as if he were going to throw a haymaker. Rather, as Coby turned over, he swung his right fist straight into the ground, releasing all his strength at once in one heavy push. The ground split for a dozen yards or so in all directions, taking out a portion of the building with the soldiers around them.

It also obliterated the ground he and Kate were standing on, which opened up a gap into the subways below.]

This is where we'll go!